THE WORLD

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Joseph Biden for president! His main rival for the Democratic Party's nomination, Bernie Sanders, endorsed him on April 13. If the world could vote, the overwhelming majority would vote for Biden, despite some misgivings. My reservations would be on his foreign policy. Like President Barack Obama he would be good on domestic policy but mistaken on much of his foreign policy.

Obama made Biden responsible for dealing with the Ukraine crisis where he fashioned an anti-Russian policy based on little evidence that this was fair to the facts. He writes now of the need to "counter Russian aggression" and that "we must impose real costs on Russia for its violations of international norms".

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – The economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are increasingly hitting low- and middle-income countries and the poor. International travel restrictions and the full or partial closure of businesses and industries in Asia, Europe, and North America have led to a collapse in global travel and are expected to reduce the flows of remittances. Tourism and remittances are important sources of employment and incomes for the poor, respectively. This post assesses the potential impacts of the expected reductions in these income flows by using Egypt as a case study.

NAIROBI (IDN) – The Government of Kenya, the United Nations and humanitarian partners have launched a Flash Appeal requesting $267.5 million to respond to the most immediate and critical needs of 10.1 million people.

Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Planning, Ukur Yatani Kanacho, said: "When times are challenging you get to know your friends better. I would like to commend the Kenya United Nations Country Team and humanitarian partners for being real friends and fighting with us shoulder to shoulder as we fight this deadly pandemic."

MOSCOW (IDN) – In just a short period of time, the world in Russia has changed for everyone. I've started to notice how people around me are going mad. They've started blaming and avoiding other people, making social distance the priority of their lives. These people are well-educated, well-off, with flexible minds. It doesn't matter who they were in their life "before corona". Now all of them are afraid. And that's the reason for their madness.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Socialist-Democrat Presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, ended his campaign as it lost momentum – and the coronavirus pandemic changed everything. Claiming that he is a democratic socialist, he wanted to stage a political revolution in America.

The dreaded words "socialist" and "revolution" are anathema to Americans even though they may be quite familiar with their modern day color revolutions, regime changes, and Arab Springs abroad – in the name of democracy and freedom.

NEW YORK (IDN) – For a man who is a self-absorbed, power hungry narcissist who wants to be recognized as one of the greatest presidents of the United States while desperately trying to be reelected, Trump failed miserably to rise to the occasion precipitated by the unfortunate advent and spread of the coronavirus.

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Daily updated graphs illustrating the rising COVID-19 death rates in different countries raise hopes that we can understand impact of the virus and work out how to stop it from spreading further. But when comparing countries as different as South Korea, China, Italy and the UK, we may find the impression of how different interventions work is obscured by many other factors.

These countries differ in many important ways, including demographics, civil disobedience, population density, patterns of social interactions, air quality and genetics. Italy, for example, has regions with older populations than many other countries. And European societies are unlikely to ever accept the draconian interventions used in China and South Korea.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The U.S. and France are treading unexpected paths to besiege COVID-19 with African assistance. Striking a different note, the Nigerians have strong reservations about a team of Chinese specialists invited to support them in combating the pandemic in the West African country.

While the desperate USAID relief agency has been seeking personal protective equipment (PPE) from poor countries to safeguard much needed supplies in the U.S., and a French doctor wants to test drugs on Africans. But the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is bashing the government for inviting an 18-man team of Chinese specialists in helping to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.

Saida Ali is an intersectional feminist and an international policy analyst. She is an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity. She tweets at @SaidaAaliyah

NAIROBI (IDN) – On March 27, in response to the threat of COVID-19, Kenya instituted a nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew. That night, a man was beaten by police and later died of his injuries. A few days later, a boy looking out from the balcony of his home was killed by a police bullet.

These are not isolated cases. Kenyan police are killing the poor. At a time when the forces charged with protecting and serving us should be doing their utmost to help, they continue to pathologise people facing multiple and intersecting inequalities, and a daily struggle to earn a living.

BRAZZAVILLE (IDN) – With more than 6,000 COVID-19 cases reported in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about the virus threatening fragile health systems on the continent. Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said: "Case numbers are increasing exponentially in the African region" – not only between African countries but within different localities in the hardest-hit countries.

This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.

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